据英国《每日电讯报》报道，去年10月，一枚废弃的德国卫星在坠入印度洋之前，曾差点坠落北京。
A deserted German satellite was close to crashing into Beijing before it eventually plunged into the Indian Ocean last October, Daily Telegraph reported.
欧洲宇航局向德国《明镜》杂志透露，最新测算结果表明，如果这枚2.5吨重的“伦琴”号卫星重返地球的时间再推迟7分钟，拥有2000万人口的中国首都北京将面临“深度撞击”。
The European Space Agency told Das Spiegel magazine that its new calculations have discovered that if the 2.5-ton Rosat satellite's re-entry had been delayed for seven more minutes, the Chinese capital of 20 million people would have faced a deep impact.
卫星的残余部分坠落时速达到280英里（450.6公里），将会摧毁建筑、形成撞击坑，一定会造成人员伤亡。
The satellite's remnants, travelling at speeds of 280mph (450.6kph), would have destroyed buildings, left craters and almost certainly caused causalities.